Monitoring patients at home using modern technology, so-called “telehealth,” is tipped as the next big thing in healthcare, but a new study by British researchers suggests it may not be worth the extra expense.

In recent years, a growing number of doctors have begun holding group appointments – seeing up to a dozen patients with similar medical concerns all at once. Advocates of the approach say such visits allow doctors to treat more patients, spend more time with them (even if not one on one), increase appointment availability and improve health outcomes.

Loopback Analytics, a care transitions management platform provider, has been selected to provide the technology platform for Walgreens WellTransitions, a coordinated care program that brings hospitals and health systems together with Walgreens to reduce readmission rates and healthcare costs, while improving patient health outcomes and medication adherence. The program includes some novel approaches, including in-room Rx delivery by a Walgreens rep before discharge and follow-up pharmacy care.

An Institute of Medicine panel last Friday panned an idea that has been raised in Congress to pay Medicare providers in some areas of the country less if their regions are heavy users of medical services. The idea is an outgrowth of decades of research into why Medicare spends more per beneficiary in some places such as New York City, Florida and McAllen, Texas, and significantly less in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

When people talk about the future of healthcare, Kaiser Permanente is often the model they have in mind. Kaiser has sophisticated electronic records and computer systems that – after 10 years and $30 billion in technology spending – have led to better-coordinated patient care. And because the plan is paid a fixed amount for medical care per member, there is a strong financial incentive to keep people healthy and out of the hospital, the same goal of the hundreds of accountable care organizations now being created.

A new analysis released March 20 by the West Health Institute (WHI) at a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health estimates that medical device interoperability – the ability of medical devices and healthcare systems to seamlessly communicate and exchange information – could be a source of more than $30 billion a year in savings and improve patient care and safety.

In a new model developed at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), researchers help clinicians identify which medical patients are at the greatest risk for potentially avoidable hospital readmissions so extra steps can be taken to keep those patients healthy and out of the hospital.

There was a time not long ago when even the tiniest drop of whipped cream could have killed 10-year-old Tessa Grosso. She was allergic to milk, wheat, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts and shellfish. But under the care of Dr. Kari Nadeau, a pediatric allergy and immunology specialist at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., Tessa has become the world’s first person to be desensitized to more than one allergen at the same time.